An attendant rushed forward, bringing a seat for their sovereign.
The king of Ironcrest lifted himself just enough to seat himself upon it, and Lorasbelle crouched at his side, tears in her eyes too. “Oh, Da, are you all right?”
He just shook his head. “I can’t believe it.” He gazed up at me again, his eyes traveling over my face. “But it has to be true. You look just like her but even more beautiful in a way.”
“That’s my lorafin magic at work.” Tentatively, I crouched on his other side and looked at him and then Lorasbelle. “I never knew about the two of you either. The male who stole me, he told me that I’d been abandoned in the Wood and that my family didn’t want me because I was a lorafin.”
Ruddy indignation filled my father’s cheeks. “Where is this male?” he all but seethed.
“Gone,” Jax replied readily, his voice clipped. “He’ll never hurt Elowen again.”
Tears began to spill down my cheeks as my family and I gazed at one another in wonder, and deep in my heart, Iknewthat I’d found my family. The king of Ironcrest was my father, and the princess of Ironcrest was my sister. My mother had been the queen, and with a thunderstruck memory, I recalled a detail about Ironcrest that I’d learned long ago but had never even considered was related to me.
Miramim, the queen of Ironcrest Kingdom, had died a tragic death twenty-eight summers ago. She’d gone into the Wood, as she was privy to do, and had tragically drowned in a river. It’d happened so long ago, but the king had eventually married again, many summers later, giving his surviving daughter a stepmother to call her own.
More tears fell down my cheeks, and tears fell down Lorasbelle’s too as we both stared at each other in shock.
Jax slipped an arm around my waist, hope growing in his aura as he stared at the Ironcrest royal family. “King Bronwan and Princess Lorasbelle, may we go somewhere more private? Elowen and I have much to tell you.”
CHAPTER 33
We all sat in the large receiving room in Ironcrest’s palace. Outside, the bonfires, music, and celebrations continued as the great Ironcrest Ball carried on into the night. Jax, Saramel, Cassim, and all of our friends were seated with us while my father and sister, along with the current Ironcrest queen sat across from us.
“Your guardian killed my wife.” The king still looked as though he’d seen a ghost, and Lorasbelle was looking just as shocked.
Disbelief and amazement coursed through me continually too. These fae were my family. My actualfamily. “He did. I guess Guardian Alleron happened upon us in the Wood. He said he saw me lying on a blanket near the river while my mother was bathing. That must have been after she’d given birth to me, and she was perhaps cleaning herself off. He saw my shadow mark and jumped at the opportunity to capitalize on that, so he killed her and took me. Until recently, he was my guardian and had complete control of me.”
“Hetookyou. And he murdered my Miramim.” The king abruptly stood, his face reddening and his hands fisting. “What did he do to you after he had you?”
Given the tortured expression that filled the king’s—my father’s—face, I didn’t have the heart to tell him of my guardian’s manipulative ways and seasons of abuse. “He raised me as a daughter and sold my magic, similar to what you’ve heard.”
“Did he hurt you?”
I swallowed, unable to meet his eyes.
The king’s nostrils flared sharply. “And where is this murderer now?” he all but growled.
Jax placed a hand over mine. I gripped him tightly. I was shaking so badly I felt like a trembling leaf in the wind. “Like I said before, he’s gone. Nobody’s seen or heard from him since he ran into the Dark Raider several months ago.”
The king scoffed, but some of the redness cooled from his cheeks. Finally taking a deep breath, he said, “Well, I suppose that’s fitting. If his last encounter was with the Dark Raider, one would think he got what he deserved.”
“Yes, that’s what I’ve been hoping too.” I could barely sit still as I stared across the small table at the fae in front of me. It was still sinking in that I was staring at my lost family. My lostroyalfamily.
Lorasbelle and I darted looks at one another again, just as the king finally sat once more, then brought both hands up to his face.
He scrubbed his cheeks. “I’ve been tortured with grief ever since that day.” The queen, the king’s new wife, laid a hand on his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic look. He finally dropped his hands, his shoulders folding inward. “And to think, you were alive and so close all this time.”
Lorasbelle scooted closer to him and laid a comforting hand on him as well.
My attention alighted on the casual affection the three of them showed one another. Touching, soothing pats. Until Jax, I’d never known someone to give me that kind of care before.
A ball thickened my throat, tears forming in my eyes. If I’d grown up here, I had no doubt I would have experienced that regularly.
“If I had known you were alive—” Tears filled the king’s eyes when he looked at me. “My darling girl. I don’t know how you’ll ever forgive me, but I should have found you. I should have felt that you were alive. I should have?—”
Something in me broke. Before he could utter another word, I was up from my seat and flying toward him.
He caught me in his embrace, his lean arms closing around me. The rich scent of wood mixed with cinnamon hit my senses. A memory stirred, so distant and fleeting that I didn’t know if my mind was playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn that I’d smell that scent before. That I’d smelledhimperhaps on my mother’s clothes.
